Tuck sees 98 percent placement in 2014

The Tuck School of Business has placed more of its graduates into jobs within three months of graduation than it has in years.

A full 98 percent of Tuck graduates had received job offers within three months of graduation. Tuck career development director Jonathan Masland said that the figure was the highest he had seen during his 10 years at the school. Last year, 95 percent had received job offers within three months after graduation.

“It’s definitely an accomplishment,” Masland said.

Tuck’s base salaries grew by 2.5 percent to a mean of $117,860. Masland said that he expects the figure will place Tuck among the top four business schools nationally.

The lowest base salary reported by a Tuck graduate was $60,000, while the highest was $225,000.

Stanford Business School reported a mean base salary of $129,618 this year. In 2013, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School reported a median base salary of $125,000, while Harvard Business School reported one of $120,000.

Eighty-seven percent of Tuck’s Class of 2014 received a signing bonus, which averaged $28,712, down from $29,237 last year. In addition to salaries and signing bonuses, 38 percent of Tuck’s 2014 graduates reported receiving “other guaranteed compensation,” which may include guaranteed performance bonuses, and profit-sharing agreements. Students may also receive relocation aid, tuition reimbursement, stock options and carried interest, although that figure was not included in the other guaranteed compensation figures.

Last year, 73 percent of Harvard Business School graduates received a signing bonus, the median of which was $25,000. Sixty-three percent of Wharton graduates received a signing bonus in 2013, with a median bonus of $25,000. In 2014, 50 percent of Stanford Business School graduates reported receiving a signing bonus, which averaged $26,689.

Consulting overcame financial services as the leading field for Tuck graduates in 2014. Thirty-five percent of 2014 Tuck graduates entered the consulting field, up from 27 percent last year. Additionally, roughly one-fifth of the graduating class is employed by McKinsey and Company, Bain and Company and The Boston Consulting Group, Masland said.

Masland said that the number of students entering the consulting field is at an all-time high.

“It was like, if you weren’t recruiting for consulting, you had a specific reason why,” Juliet Horton Tu’14 said.

Horton, who currently works in financial services at Amazon, said that the consulting track was becoming more dominant at Tuck during her time there.

The mean starting salary for a Tuck graduate entering the consulting field was $130,723, higher than the overall mean.

Eleven percent of the Class of 2014 went into the investment banking financial subfield of financial services, 5 percent into investment management, 4 percent into private equity and 5 percent into other financial subfields.

More students than ever are also entering technology-related fields, Masland said. He attributed the increase in interest — up to 18 percent from 13 percent last year — to a combination of student interest and aggressive recruiting by technology firms.

Masland also said that many students like to work on the West Coast, where many technology firms are based. Additionally, he said, many start-ups recruit, in addition to larger companies such as Google and Amazon.

Some students also seek employment at smaller companies that may not recruit as heavily from MBA programs, Masland said.

Paul Turbeville Tu’14 is employed at Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs of Monroe, about 50 miles north of Hanover. He said that he believes he is the only 2014 Tuck graduate employed in the area.

Turbeville said he “totally changed gears” after his 2013 summer internship at Procter and Gamble, a major pharmaceutical company. Tuck’s career services team was essential in his search for a local gourmet food company with the capacity to hire an MBA, he said.

Tuck’s 2014 Employment Survey was completed by 93 percent of eligible students, Masland said. Some students could not complete the survey due to business school rules that exclude those graduates who are forming their own company, continuing their education or were sponsored to attend business school by a company.

The survey is sent to eligible students when they receive and accept a job offer.

Tuck’s goal is not simply to lead its graduates into lucrative careers, Masland said, but also into careers they enjoy.

“It’s more about how satisfied the students are with the jobs they join, the companies they join, the industries they’re in,” he said. “You can have a job and you can make a lot of money, but if you’re not happy with it, that’s not a success, so in some ways the numbers miss the most important piece.”

Though many 2013 graduates report that they are satisfied with their jobs, Tuck still has work to do, Masland said.

“What I lose sleep over is the students who don’t have offers,” he said.